Fire and Sunshine's Jewel
by Cucumber the Insane
Summary: Crystal Valdez had every reason in the world to be mad at her cousins: Jayden Grace and Luke Jackson. A slip up from Jayden caused a chain of events which ended in them being questioned at sword point by their teenage parents. As threats rise and secrets spilled, the task of coming home starts to seem impossible. Future Kids. Time Travel.


Chapter 1

Crys was angry. No, the word angry was too weak. She was more then ready to take Luke and Jayden and twist and pop those head right off their necks. Sure her "cousins" were annoying. But never have they done something this big before. She might not even be able to get back.

Maybe she should start at the beginning.

Crystal woke with a start. She had passed out on top of her queen-sized bed with one hand clutching a wrench. Her sleepy brain took in the fact she was wearing her working sweats and the light above her desk was still on. Then she remembered: Sammy's birthday present!

Her brother was turning eight tomorrow and she had been planning his present for months. Crys had been trying to pull an all-nighter to finish it when she had fallen asleep. She stumbled out of bed and onto her stool. One hand swept her dusty brown hair out of her face and the other grabbed her brother's present. It was a high tech racecourse for the cars their dad had made him two years ago.

Lazily, she connected wires and tested lights while also somewhat cleaning off her workbench. It covered a whole wall of her room with drawers, bulletin boards, tools and other random bolts and bits. She just shoved odd parts into drawers and hung tools on the pegboard. Slender fingers spun a pencil over the draft of the racecourse. She jotted down the improvements she had added and was going to add, while rolling a screw between her fingers.

That's when Leo, her dad, poked his head in. He was shirtless with only a pair of baggy jeans on him. His hands were wrapped in medical tape from hours of working on machines.

"Get dressed Crys! Today is your day to work at the garage remember," He cheerfully informed his eldest. "Hey, that looks great!" Her dad's ADHD kicked in as he picked up the racetrack and examined it. "I'd add one more bolt right here. To secure those two pieces."

"Got it," Crystal muttered as she added that improvement to the blueprint.

"Leo! The eggs are burning!" Calypso, her mother, yelled.

"Coming Sunshine!" He winked at her before taking off down the hall.

Crystal quickly threw on her regular work clothes; a gray baseball t-shirt, dark short overalls, paint splattered high tops, and a dirty white bandanna in her hair. She quickly swept her curly hair into a high ponytail, the red, orange, and yellow tips brushing between her shoulder blades. Next she slipped on an arrow ring and the necklace her mom had given her. It was a spoil of war, a dragon claw clutching a teal ball, attached to a long gold chain. Tenderly she swept her fingertips against her multiple ear piercings, an old habit. The two small diamonds in her ear and the silver hoop in the cartilage sailed smoothly under them.

She rushed down the stairs to arrive in the kitchen. Her Mom was sitting on the counter in only sweat pants and a sports bra. Her caramel hair was pulled into a messy bun and her eyes sparkled with laughter as she shook her head at Crys's Father.

Leo was flipping scrambled eggs while he danced (terribly, mind you) to the song Sammy was beating out on the table with thick, long nails.

Calypso slid off the counter, picked up Sammy, and placed him on his chair. She held out her palm and Leo placed a plate with eggs, fruit, and slightly burnt toast on it.

"Alright Drummer Boy, time to eat!"

"But Mommy!" Sammy protested and whined. "I don't wanna!"

"Eat up," Crystal suggested as she yanked open the fridge. "Or else you will stay a shrimp forever."

"Daddy!" He complained. "Cwys is bullying me!"

Leo chuckled and ruffled his brown curls, "She is right though Squirt."

"Mommy!"

Calypso sent a harsh glare toward her eldest and her husband.

Crys grinned and grabbed a protein shake from the fridge, spun over to Sammy, and placed a mini fork in his hand. "Sorry Shrimp, remember that today Uncle Jase is going to pick you up from the library."

Sammy looked like some one had kicked a puppy. "Why are you not?"

"It's my turn to man the shop and speaking of which, I'm running late."

She grabbed her weathered faux leather backpack and headed for the door.

"Hey!" Leo yelled after her, "Remember that Uncle T is coming to pick up the bike today."

"We will meet you there in about 2 hours okay Baby Girl?" Calypso added.

Crys nodded and slammed the blue front door behind her. She ran to the beat up black pick up, set the radio to classic rock, and tore out of the drive way.

In ten short minutes she entered the shops lot. The first couple keys didn't work in the door but the 5th one did and she flipped the sign to OPEN! Crystal dropped her junk in the worn down chair in her office and set off to finish tuning Uncle Travis's bike.

Not even 20 minutes into working had the goons came in. Well, she thought they were goons. Most, well actually every teenage girl in existence, found them extremely hot. The goons were her "cousins" Luke and Jayden.

Luke Charles Jackson. Anyone one of those three words were enough to make the Aphrodite girls swoon. His messy, dark brown hair was tucked carelessly in a sea green beanie, which brought out the flecks of green in his stormy eyes. The natural tan and the troublemaker grin that teachers hated never seemed to never leave his body.

And then there was his partner in crime.

Jayden Tristan Grace. The name that monsters feared and he himself hated. However it had its perks. Whenever a ditzy, flirty girl wandered up to him he would simply say, "Hey"-cue flipping of his dirty blonde hair- "Call me Jay." And then he would smirk and flash his kaleidoscope eyes in their direction.

"What do you want?" She asked annoyed.

"Is that any way to address family?" Luke smirked.

"It appears you have a little something," Jayden paused and thought about the best way to say this, "EVERYWHERE!"

He was referring to the grease smeared across her cheek, arms, hands, clothes, legs, and well, as he so eloquently put it, EVERYWHERE.

"Hmmm… I think it is," She bit back, completely ignoring Jay's comment.

Luke rolled his eyes and impatiently waved his hand, "Did you build it?"

Crystal knew exactly what he was talking about. Earlier that week the two of the came in and filled out a form for a circular object with two hooks which would hold a vial of something. They had written build ASAP on the top.

"Hm? What was I supposed to build?" She fibbed.

Jayden growled, "You know perfectly well what we mean."

"Oh! It's coming back to be now… it was in the shape of a sphere, right?" She grinned inwardly as she teased her cousins.

"Enough messing around Crys, this is important," Luke stressed, annoyance seeping with every word.

She cocked her head and picked up a used to be white, now black towel and began to smear a little of the grease off her hands.

"Crystal Esperanza Valdez," Jayden warned.

She simply rolled her eyes, made a come hither gesture, and started to walk to her office. Like most of her stuff, her office was eternally messy. Papers and tools lay scattered over the various surfaces of the room. Her keys were thrown into an ashtray (this was weird that she had one because she didn't smoke). Various coats and other clothes were hanging from hooks around the room. However Crystal was always able to find everything.

Crys headed to the main chair and yanked up her backpack. In seconds, she had loosened the strings and found the cool brass ball they had requested.

She hesitated before saying, "I have a deal for you two." She swallowed hard and continued on, "You will get the family discount plus an extra 10% off if you let me see what you are going to do with it."

Luke was hesitant but Jayden jumped at the chance with a enthusiastic yes.

"Great!" Crys grinned and handed them the requested object.

Luke shot a venomous glare at Jay and snatched the object out of his hands. Delicately his scarred hands removed a small glass vial that had a sloshing opaque liquid inside. Continuing his oddly gentle act, he opened the sphere and placed the tube inside with the utmost of care. Stress rolled off him as he closed the door to the object.

"So?" She questioned.

"So what?" Jay asked dumbly back, a bit too joyful of a grin settling on his features.

Crystal raised her eyebrows at them, a silent warning. Luckily for them, Luke got the clue and saved Jay from being pulverized.

"It's a little… helpful prank." He hesitated a bit too much after the first three words and his voice wavered toward the end.

"Yeah," Jay chimed in, "We got the Hecate Cabin to make us that potion. It's called the-''

He never got to finish his sentence as Luke choose this time to harshly shove his elbow into his ribcage. The sudden, and obviously panicked, move Luke made disrupted the globe shaped 'helpful prank'. It started to crash towards the ground. Jay made a sound like a strangled cat and Luke dove. He was a second too late. The globe hit the ground and a tiny cracking noise could be heard.

"The vial!" Luke exclaimed in fear.

Crystal's hands clenched her backpack. What was so terrible about some stupid prank thing cracking? She got her answer no less then a second later when the room exploded into light and the three were whisked away along with the things they were holding.

Crystal landed with her stomach pressed up against her lumpy backpack. Before she could even take a breath, she felt the sharp edge of a blade press up against her back.

"Who are you?" growled an all too familiar but way too young sounding voice.

She simply banged her head against the ground and muttered, "I am so going to kill you two goons."

A/N: This is my first Fanfic do reviews and constructive critisim is welcome.


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